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Kurds From Iraq Kill 17 Soldiers in Turkey
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"I have seen the dead children," said Abu Zahara, an official in the local Sadr office. "We are a peaceful people. We are just sitting in our homes. We don't want anything to do with the Americans. Just leave us alone."
[an error occurred while processing this directive]He said among the dead were a woman and four children, including a 4-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy. Their 1-year-old brother was seriously wounded, he said.
"Why are the American soldiers fighting women and children?" said Abu Hawra, a local religious leader. "The American occupation forces started bombing the city for no reason."
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that the government would investigate the raid and that coordination between U.S. and Iraqi forces was necessary to prevent such "woeful incidents."
Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, called the raid a "barbaric action" and a "crime" that should lead to criminal charges. He said no one in Sadr City attacked the Americans because Sadr in August had ordered his powerful militia, the Mahdi Army, to stop all fighting for six months.
Obeidi said Sadr's order remained in effect. But several of his followers in Sadr City said they expected the attack to increase pressure on him to lift the order.
Mohammed Chaloub, 38, who works in the Interior Ministry, said he watched the raid from his roof and saw the damage it left: a bombed-out primary school, several destroyed shops and 18 burned cars. U.S. gunfire prevented firefighting vehicles from reaching the area, he said.
He said Sadr City residents were furious at the U.S. troops. "If you woke up in the morning and saw your entire family killed and your house burned out, what would your reaction be?" he said. "Nobody would accept that."
Staff writer Robin Wright in Washington and special correspondents Dlovan Brwari in Dahuk, Saad Sarhan in Najaf, Zaid Sabah and Dalya Hassan in Baghdad, and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.
